Spinning and twisting fibers.



G. A. LOWRY.

SPINNING AND TWISTING FIBERS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 19, 1913. RENEWED APR. 28. 1915.

1,159,136., Patented Aug. 17, 1915.

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e. A. LOWRY.

SPINNING AND TWISTING FIBERS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 19, I913- RENEWED APR.28. 191.5.

1,150,136. Patented Aug. 17, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

witnesses 7 e. A. LOWRY.

SPINNING AND TWISTING FIBERS.

-APPLICAT|ON FILED MAY19| I913. RENEWED APR- 28,19l5.

1,159,136. Patented Aug. 17, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

STATES PATENT F E if GEORGE A. LOWRY, OF NEW YORK, 1v. Y., AssreNoR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSiGN- mnnrs, r rALMEr'ro PRODUCTS COMPANY, INCORPORATED.

SPINNING AND TWISTING FIBERS.

Specification of Letters Patent. i

Patented Aug. 17, 1915." I

Application filed May 19, 1913, Serial No. 768,572. Renewed April 28, 1915. Serial No. 24,575.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE A. LOWRY, citizen of the United States, and resident of New York, in the county of New York and 5 State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Spinning and Twisting Fibers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to s inning, or

19 twisting fibers, grasses, hairs, ne splints,

strips or ribbons of the leaves of the palmetto or other trees, and materials of similar character, to all of which the general appellation of filaments may be applied, 1 and its principal object is to produce a twisted strand of such filaments free from projecting ends of the individual filaments which compose the strand.

In the ordinary methods of spinning and 20 twisting, the fibers, after being carded to place them in an approximately parallel relation to each other, are first loosely twisted together, and then by a series of drawing and twisting processes" the fibers are drawn 2 within the twist until a fairly smooth single twist strand is produced. The leading and following ends of the individual fibers, however, still protrude to a greater or less extent I from the twisted strand,fbut when the fibers are fine such protruding ends are not especially objectionable, or may be removed by gassing the strand or yarn. In twisting coarse strips or ribbons, to which this mvention is particularly addressed, such as grasses, strips or ribbons cut from palmetto leaves, and similar materials, much difliculty has been experienced .in obtaining smooth twisted strands, on account of the protrud-- ing ends of the comparatively stifl' and 40 coarse material. In making twine or yarn of grass, strips, or ribbons'of leaves, or similar coarse filamentous materials, for matting, binder twine, etc., it has been usual to make a multiple strand, composed of several single strands twisted together, each single strand being produced by a single twist method, The several single strands when wrapped around each other in a multiple strand hold down a substantial part of the protruding ends of the strlps or filaments, but the multiple strand so produced is often undesirable for several reasons. It possesses too great rigidity and inflexibillty;

it is more costly than a single strand; and

to it requires more time, labor and mechanism -skelton cone.

to produce it. It has also been a practice in making single, strand twine of such-materials to wrap the strand after it is twisted, with a cotton thread to hold down the protruding ends of the strips. Neither of these i the mass of twisted filaments or strips themselves, so that there are no protruding ends. In making a twine or yarn from grass or :other coarse fiber, according to my invention, I cause the filaments, as they are fed to the twister in succession, to spread or di-" verge at their following ends, while the leading ends are inserted into the center or core formed by the filaments previously fed to the twister. Roughly speaking, I make the filaments form a skeleton cone, with its apex at the point where the filamentsare twisted together, and insert each filament so that, its leading end enters the interior of this cone, joining the preceding filaments at the apex,

and therefore atapoint where the entering p or leading end is inclosed by the preceding filaments as they are twisted together. As soon as a filament is thus introduced and its leading end twisted inside the previously introduced filaments, the free, or following endof the filament is caused to follow a helical path outwardly from its position of introduction; successively introduced filaments follow each other in this spreading movement, forming the skeleton cone into which the leading ends of the successively introduced filaments are passed. As the filaments are introduced in succession their following ends arrive in succession at the extreme outward position after following the said helicalpath, and just before these following ends are drawn into the twister, they are released from theguida-nce which determined their said helical movement, and spring inward to the center, or axis, of the Then those filaments which follow, being still held in divergence from the axis of the cone, and being meanwhile drawn into the twister, twist themselves around the following end of the filament that has just sprung inward to the axis of the cone. This happens to all the filaments in succession, so that the leading end of each is wrapped inside the filaments which preceded it in passage to the twister, and the no following end of each is wrapped inside the filaments which succeed it in passage to the twister.

\Yhile the foregoing expresses my invention in its full values, a measurable portion of these values may be secured by so twisting the filaments together that one end of each is covered into the twine, leaving the as aforesaid, I have invented a machine, appara-tus or mechanism, one embodiment of which is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a side elevation of such machine; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the spiral guide or spreader; Fig. 3 is a cross section through the parts shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a vertical central section, enlarged, through the twister; Fig. 5 is a plan view, partly broken away, of the parts shown in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a detail in plan view of the feed rolls or drawing rolls and their gears, shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 7 shows a portion of the twine made according to my invention, on an enlarged scale.

Referring to the drawings, A represents an upright support, to which are secured the brackets a, a, and (1 for supporting the various parts of the twisting mechanism. The twister, indicated generally at B, is mounted to rotate on bracket a, and comprises the worm gear 6, and a pair of pinch rolls 6" and b mounted respectively on sliding journal blocks b and 5*, which are pressed inward by springs 12 and b. The rolls Z) and b meet across a central aperture I) through which the strand passes. The twister is rotated by a worm gear 0, on shaft 0, journaled on bracket (1.

Below the twister B, is the feed mecha nism or drawing mechanism, indicated generally by the reference character D, supported on bracket a, and comprising a pair of feed rolls (1, (Z, rotated together by gears (1 (1 which are carried by the shafts on which said feed rolls are mounted. A spring d tends to press roll (Z toward roll cl.

The shaft 0' may be connected withany. suitable source of power (not shown) and drives not only the twister B, but also the feed rolls 1, (Z', by 21' Cl'l&ll'l and sprocket connection between shaft 0 and the shaft on which roll cl is mounted. On top of the twister B, and rotating therewith, is a hopper or carrier E, which may be an open-work or cage-like struc ture, as shown, composed of upright bars and horizontal hoops. The. sides of carrier E converge toward the bottom to a narrow throat 6 opening into the central aperture of the twister B. Pins or arms e project radially inward from one of the hoops of carrier E for the purpose hereinafter set forth.

F represents a spiral funnel, and f a spiral wire, coiling outward and continuing the spiral from the outer edge of the'spiral funnel. The spiral wire f is located a substantial distance above the outlet end of the funnel F, and a similar but smaller spiral wire f is located at the bottom of the funnel. The funnel F is adjustably supported on bracket (1 by a slotted ear F.

The operation of the machine is as fol lows: Assuming that the twister B is revolving, and that a twisted strand S has been started and is being drawn downward of the hopper E, will have been carried from the inner convolutions of the spirals toward the outer convolutions by the rotation of the twister and hopper, while the funnel and spirals remain stationary. This will spread said upstanding untwisted ends outward in a form which may be described as a skeleton cone. New filaments are now added one after another, by being dropped into the funnel F. The leading end of each filament will be directed at first by the funnel F acting as a guide, into the midst of the spread filaments, or, in other words, into the axis of the cone, and at once hecomes engaged and drawn into the center of the twine or strand passing between and being formed by the pinch rolls 1), b-. At the same time the rotary motion given by the twister, assisted by the inwardly prowithin a short distance of the twister, it-is released from the lower coil 7 of the spiral spreader, which is spaced a little way from the twister, and being short and comparatively stiff springs to upright position, there.- by bringing'the following end'into'themidst of the spread ends of the subsequent or strips, so that the longer ends of material which are coming after it will envelop and inclose such following end. Thus the machine will automatically produce a singletwist strand in which both the leading and the following ends of its several component strips are inclosed and wrapped inside of the strand, instead of protruding therefrom as they do when made by the methods and the mechanism heretofore employed.

The principle on which the above described machine operates, is as follows: Strips or filaments being fed successively endwise into the twister, are successively spread outward at their upper or following ends, so that these ends form a skeleton conical helix as they are drawn down through the twister. Each strip or filament is fed into the core or axis of this conical helix, so that the previously inserted filaments wrap around the leading end ofthe subsequently inserted filament. As each filament descends to the twister it is released from the constraint which previously bent it outward from the core or center, s0 that its following end springsback to the core or center and is then surrounded and concealed by the filaments which succeeded it in introduction to the machine. The leading end of each filament is thus twisted inside.

the filaments which preceded it, while the following end of each filament is twisted inside the filaments which succeeded it, in introduction to the machine. From the instant the leading end of a filament enters the twister of the machine the filament is bent outward more and more in a spiral path, until just before the following end enters the twister, that end is released to spring back to the center and inside of the conical helix formed by its successors. As the filaments suited to such treatment are approximately of even lengths, the resulting twine is composed of filaments laid in substantially regularly spaced succession.

The structure of the twine is illustrated in Fig. 7, where one of the strands is shaded to distinguish it from the others. This strand S, has the leading end S (shown in dotted lines) inserted in the core of the] twine and wrapped in the body of filaments around it: The following end S (shown in dotted lines) is similarly inclosed.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. Themethod of twisting which consists end of each filament in the twist formed by its successors.

3. The method of twisting which consists in supplying filaments successively to twine vin the course of formation, inserting the leading end of each filament inside the twist formed by its predecessors, bending each filament outward as it is drawn in to the twist, releasing it and allowing its following end to spring inward before being incorporated in the twist, and inclosing said released following end of each filament in the twist formed by its successors.

4. The method of twisting'which consists in supplying filaments successively and with substantial regularity to twine. in the course of formation, inserting the leading end of each filament inside the twist formed by its predecessors, bending each filament outward as it is drawn into the twist, releasing it and allowing its following end to spring inward before being incorporated in the twist, and inclosing said released following end, of each filament in the twist formed by its successors.

5. Twine, composed of twisted filaments, an end of each filament being inclosed in the twist formed by its neighbors.

6. Twine, composed of twisted filaments, both ends of each filament being inclosed by 'the twist formed by other filaments.

GEORGE A. LOWRY.

Witnesses:

JOSEPH OFFENBACH, AARoN GRABEY. 

